Brooklyn Center Elementary Unveils New Mural and Playground
As you drive south on Highway 100 in Brooklyn Center, you may notice a new addition to the roadside buildings: a huge mural painted on the side of Brooklyn Center Elementary School.
“If you look very closely, you’ll see it says ‘You Belong.,'” said Principal Keisha Davis. “That really is our motto. Our children belong, our community belong.”
This new mural is on the western-facing wall of Brooklyn Center Elementary School.
The mural was a collaboration among art teachers and students who worked before and and after school to complete it.
“They had our scholars do like a paint-by-number, so each number represented a color, and they were able to get in there and get dirty,” said Davis. “You can see how each color of the artwork goes along with what is important in the community.”
The mural is not the only other addition to the school as students return for the new school year in September. A new playground recently opened on land the school district shares with the City of Brooklyn Center. The two partners worked with the Trust for Public Land on a plan to best utilize the space.
This new playground at Brooklyn Center Elementary School is on a site next to the school that includes land owned by the city.
“Not only our students get to use it during the school day, but after school and on the weekends we want it to be accessed by anyone and everyone,” said Community Schools Manager Renee Starrt with Brooklyn Center Community Schools. “So, yes, knowing we had stakeholder engagement and from residents was important.”
School officials are eager for students in the fall to enjoy the new play structures.
“We have a hard time trying to coordinate the schedules for the playgrounds, and the larger playground on the other end just didn’t have the needed capacity to celebrate the different needs of our children,” said Davis. “Now that we have two playgrounds, and they’re both desirable, we can now accommodate for the needs of our babies.”
The playground, which will have a ribbon-cutting on August 26, is just phase one of a larger redevelopment of the land on the north and west borders of the school.
“By this time next year, there will be a lot more to look at,” said Starr.
